Tag Archives: Photo Friday

Yesterday was the annual Sports Day at the primary campus. It’s a big community event, and school is canceled at the high school to allow teens and teachers to come and cheer or help.

Once you have a child at the primary campus, your family is assigned to Team Yellow or Team Red, and all your children will always be that color. We are Team Yellow!

Talia represents for her siblings.

Isaiah rounding the curve in one of the races. He’s in yellow with the hat.

Nehemiah had fun watching, but this year he refused to wear his yellow shirt. The yellow truck counts I guess?

Proof that we were winning at one point.

Isaiah in the sack race.

This picture is a little dark, but it was one of my favorite moments of Sports Day, and shows one of the things I love about Ukarumpa. Sports Day has some challenging moments for kids who aren’t athletic, and there is one event that is really hard for Makaylah. Several friends finished the event with her, and then everyone in her age group, even girls that aren’t close friends, surrounded Makaylah to encourage her.

Sophia (top) and Makaylah (bottom) running the distance races.

Sports Day ends with a big tug-of-war. Go yellow!!

It was Team Red’s turn to win this year.

Sophia with her friend Evie.

Isaiah and Shay. We have a picture like this from last year that I love.

At the end of the day, whether we are red or yellow, “winners” or “losers” we are Community!

Unlike last week, this week I had the opportunity to take lots of pictures! Because there were too many good ones to narrow it down, I’m just sharing from one unusual experience I had last weekend.

Saturday morning, bright and early, I headed out for my first “Lae in a Day” trip. Lae is a city a 3-4 hour drive from here, on the coast of PNG. Since we needed time to drive to Lae, shop, eat lunch, and get back before dark, we left early.

Yes. That’s what time I left my house. The moon was still up, people. I am not a morning person. If I hadn’t been going with several other ladies, and if one of them wasn’t a wonderful planner, this would never have happened 😉

The drive is an experience in itself. Windy mountain roads down the Kassam Pass, with spectacular views that are hard to capture, since there are very few pull-offs.

After a year spent in Ukarumpa, which has a population of around 1,000, Lae feels like a gigantic city. The traffic, sites, and people really overwhelmed me. Not to mention the stores! But I loved these murals, found on a lot of the walls around Lae.

The selection in the stores was really impressive. It was a lot to process, after shopping at our store here on center. I couldn’t get any pictures because I was to busy not crying deciding what to buy. Turns out the stories I’ve heard about missionaries breaking down in the cheese aisle at Wal-Mart because there are so many choices are not. made. up.

I was very thankful that we squeezed in a calming lunch at the Lae Yacht Club between stores.

The closest I’ve gotten to the ocean since we arrived on this island. I confess to being more of a mountain girl, but it was amazing to see the ocean here.

Speaking of mountains 🙂 These were taken on the trip home. The country side of Papua New Guinea is as diverse as her people. These pictures were taken in Markham Valley. I’m amazed at the flat ground, walled in by mountains. Ukarumpa is located in Aiyura Valley. Here, it’s almost impossible to find a flat stretch of ground. Instead the ground rises and falls and flows up and down towards our mountains.

My shopping was successful. You never know what you will find in “The Land of the Unexpected.” But I brought home lots and lots of cheese at a great price, olive oil, and some fun novelties we don’t normally find here.

Talia loved the sultanes (raisins) and dried applies.

Nehemiah thinks saltine crackers go great with mom’s chili!

Balloons. Because… obviously.

Shhh. I didn’t share these with the kids 😮

There are even more great pictures (and a video) from this week, but this post is long enough. Look for them on our facebook page soon!

The kids are on a two-week break from school. We have been enjoying a different pace, with a bit more time together and freedom to our schedule.

Sophia was invited to a wacky birthday party, which concluded with a fashion show. I’d say she definitely got into the spirit of things!

We love our market! We are thankful that even in the midst of drought, for now, we have fruits and vegetables.

The little kids have been enjoying the movie, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” Talia and Isaiah enjoyed dancing along!

Thankful beyond words for these ladies and other sweet friendships here!

This weekend I (Melissa) was able to attend a women’s conference. The “She Is…” team came in from Australia to lead it for our community. It was a tremendous blessing, and a great time to strengthen friendships and hear from the Lord. I appreciate your prayers as I continue to process and seek Him in the lessons He taught me during this sweet time with Him.

Celebrating our one-year-in-PNG anniversary.Sunday we set aside some family time. David and Sophia spent time putting together one of the puzzles my mom shipped us. Sophia was a bit proud of their hard work.

Tuesday was Sophia’s TENTH birthday! Absolutely mind-blowing for this mom and dad. She is wild, intense, and amazing 🙂

She loved these earrings from Mimi (David’s mom).

A package!!! Boxes always make us smile. Thanks, AFA ladies!!

This school year Makaylah started choir. She has really been enjoying it, and Thursday night she had her first performance. Another one of our girls that is growing up too fast! We are thankful for the amazing community we live in that allows our kids so many options, even while living in another country.

It was a late night for the little siblings, but we had a great time, sleepy and in pjs!See you next week! Check out our facebook page for a video from Makaylah’s concert.

Today marks ONE YEAR in Papua New Guinea! We are overjoyed and overwhelmed. Our poor blog has been a bit neglected as we’ve worked to learn a new culture and settle into a routine. We hope to remedy that over the coming months. To that end, we plan to post at least once a week with “Photo Friday.”

We hope you enjoy these glimpses into our lives!

As we’ve mentioned on our facebook page, Papua New Guinea is in the middle of a drought. Some Papua New Guineans believe that burning can bring rain – the smoke rises and brings clouds. Whatever the reason, many Papua New Guineans around us are burning the grass. This week one of the fires was close to the portion of the perimeter fence near our house. It was hard to get a good picture of the scope of the fire!

After over a month with no rain, and asking many of you to pray with us for rain, we were overjoyed to see raindrops on roses and puddles on the road! We’ve had some sprinkles since then, but please keep praying.

Our market is full of lots of healthy produce, which we enjoy often. A few local ladies also sell donuts, and occasionally David will bring some home for the kids. It’s a well received treat!

Talia and our new puppy, Isia’, both enjoy when the “big kids” get home from school!

Isaiah and his buddy Shay love the high tech toys…. Sticks and rocks.

Since we arrived in Papua New Guinea, we’ve enjoyed walking to and from anywhere we needed to go. But recently, someone has been letting us borrow a vehicle. We still use our feet often, but it has been a blessing with all the trips to and from the school we do!